'Bringing Up Baby' is chaotic ride worth taking

Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Charles Ruggles, May Robson, Fritz Feld, George Irving and Walter Catlett
Director: Howard Hawks
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

When paeleontologist David Huxley (Grant) goes to schmooze a lawyer representing a wealthy widow who is considering making a donation of $1 million to the museum he works at, he instead finds himself drawn into the chaotic life of socialite Susan Vance (Hepburn). Before he knows it, he's hunting leopards in Connecticutt.


I think I saw this movie for the first time when I was 10 or 12. It was was funniest thing I'd ever seen, and I've been touting this film as one of my favorites for the past three decades.

I recently watched it again, and I found myself not amused so much as annoyed by Katharine Hepburn's obnxiously dippy character and the way Cary Grant's Dr. Huxley was incapable of avoiding her, not just because he was a gentleman but because he was milquetoast in the extreme.

"Bringing Up Baby" is still a hilarious movie, even if it didn't quite live up to my memories of it. Cary Grant puts on a great show--even with my being annoyed at his character. It's also interesting to notice that while Hepburn interacts with the leopard (panther?) co-star, Grant never gets closer to the cat than a couple of feet. I wonder what the story is behind that? Was Cary Grant too big a star to run the risk of him getting mauled?

'Woman on the Run' is worth chasing after

Woman on the Run (1950)
Starring: Ann Sheridan, Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Keith and Ross Elliot
Director: Norman Foster
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

When artist Frank Johnson (Elliot) witnesses a gangland slaying and is subsequently target by the killer, he panics and goes on the run. When the police detective (Keith) in charge of the case contacts his wife, Eleanor (Sheridan) he finds an imbittered woman who is strangely uninterested in helping to locate him. But, once the police are gone, Elanor sets about tracking down her husband herself, first alone, then with the help of scoop-seeking reporter Danny Leggett. But, as Elanor draws closer to finding Frank, she unknowing leads the killer to him as well... a killer who is desperate to eliminate anyone who might identify him.


"Woman on the Run" is a well-scripted, perfectly paced film-noir style crime drama. The dialogue is particularly well-crafted, as is Elanor's gradual transformation from a surly film-noir dame to a wife who discovers that she and her husband still have a marriage worth saving. The way the film reveals the identity of the killer--who is much closer throughout the film than anyone suspects--and the casual way it demonstrates exactly how murderous and coldblooded he is, are also stellar examples of quality screen-writing and filmmaking.

With fine performances by all actors featured, an excellent script, great photography that takes full advantage of the black-and-white film medium, and a perfect music score to round out the package, "Woman on the Run" is a film that's undeserving of its obscurity... and it's a film that makes the 50-movie DVD collection "Dark Crimes " (which is where I saw it) worth the purchase price almost all by itself--another reason why it's such a shame its going out of print.

A cautionary tale about mixing up your meds....

The Vampire (aka "Mark of the Vampire") (1957)
Starring: John Beal, Kenneth Tobey, Lydia Reed, Coleen Gray, Dabbs Greer, and James Griffith
Director: Paul Landres
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A kindhearted small-town doctor and single father (Beal) accidentally takes an experimental drug in place of his migraine medicine. Each night around 11pm, he now transforms into a hideous manbeast whose bite infects victims with a virus that causes the cells in their bodies to disintegrate. Will he find a way to stop the transformations before he attacks and kills his pretty nurse (Gray) or, worse, his little daughter (Reed)?

"The Vampire" is a somewhat misleading title. There really aren't any vampires in the film, and the story draws more from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" than from any vampire legends.

That aside, this is a neat little flick where horror meets mad science. John Beal plays a very sympathetic main character who is as much a victim as the people he attacks--and unlike many other movie characters in his stead, he actually tries to take action to stop himself but fate or disbelief on the part of those he asks for help always steps in to keep the movie going until it's inevitable conclusion.

Although there are few moments of horror in the film, it does manage to deliver many tense moments. It is also structured in such a way that I was starting to wonder if the film would take the unusual step for movies from this period of having the precocious young daughter of our hero/monster (played with better-than-average skill for a child actor) be attacked or even maimed. It film doesn't go down that road, but it's an illustration of the how well the script is put together that I even thought it might. (Actually, this is one of those rare movies that could do with a remake. What if Beal had bitten his daughter or the nurse but not killed them? The race to swiftly develop a cure before their bodies start to break down would have made for a great end to the film.)

"The Vampire" is one of those films that can feed the imagination if you're in the right (twisted) frame of mine, and that makes it worth seeking out. Entirely too few movies do that.

'House on Haunted Hill' is home to campy fun

House on Haunted Hill (1959) Starring: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Elisha Cook, Carolyn Craig, David Long, Alan Marshal, and Julie Mitchum 

Director: William Castle 

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars 

 Eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren (Price) and his wife Annabelle (Ohmart) invite five cash-strapped strangers to spend the night with them in "the world's only truly haunted house"; if they stay locked in house from midnight to sunrise, they (or their heirs, should they not survive), will earn $10,000 each. Once the seven people are sealed in the house, the killing starts. Is it the ghosts, or are the visitors to the House on Haunted Hill being stalked by someone of flesh-and-blood?

"House on Haunted Hill" is a movie that scared the bejeezus out of me when I first saw it as a little kid... and as a kid, the twist-ending seemed like the coolest thing ever. When I saw it again as an adult, I didn't find it scary anymore, but I did find it entertaining and fun. This may not be much of a horror movie, but it is great fun to watch, particularly since the film is self-consciously cliched and over-the-top--with the aforementioned twist-ending being the most spectacular example of this. 

 The five principal players in the film all portray stock horror/thriller characters--Price is the suave yet slightly batty millionaire; Ohmart his scheming, two-timing, greedy wife; Long is the heroic, square-jawed man of action; Craig is the damsel who is always screaming in terror and always in distress; and Cook is the doom-saying coward--and they all seem to be having lots of fun with their parts. The ghostly activities in the house don't make a whole lot of sense--nor are any of them even possible in the light of some facts we learn at other times in the film--if you think about them, but there's a sort of wink-and-nod atmosphere throughout that it really doesn't matter.

"House on Haunted Hill" is good, cheesy fun...and that seems to be exactly what the filmmakers were shooting for when they made it. If you like haunted house movies, you may enjoy this one. Just realize that it doesn't take itself all that seriously. (It's a film that young kids may find thrilling and scary--the giant vat of acid in the basement seemed particularly cool to me as a kid--but adults will spend their time viewing it smiling.)

 

A couple of intense moments highlight the otherwise boring 'Dementia 13'

Dementia 13 (1963)
Starring: Luana Anders, William Campbell, and Patrick Magee
Director: Francis Coppola
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

After her husband dies of a heart attack, Louise (Anders) covers up his death and travels to Castle Halloran, his family's ancestral estate in Ireland, where her strange inlaws live. Here, she enacts a scheme to gain the trust of her mentally unstable mother-in-law and get a piece of the family fortune. Her plan is working well...until the crazed axe murderer shows up and starts hacking people to bits. Which member of the creepy family in Castle Halloran has an axe to grind with the rest of them?


Much like "Psycho" starts out seeming to be one kind of crime drama and then veers suddenly in another direction and turns into a completely different sort of crime drama, so does "Dementia 13" transform from a slow-moving, mildly interesting gothic thriller into a precursor for slasher-flicks like the "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" series. (The scene where the axe murderer is after Lady Halloran, and virtually demolishes a shack to get at her, would fit right into just about any slasher flick.)

"Dementia 13" is about average for a Roger Corman-produced low-budget quickie. The acting is pretty bad all around, although Magee is fun as the creepy family doctor, and Anders has an interesting look about her and is good at seeming sinister without trying. (She also has some of the creepiest scenes in the flick. The sequence of her in the pond is very well done; it is actually the film's highpoint.)

The attempts at scares are pretty feeble and universally badly executed, and aside from the aforementioned scenes with the axe murderer hacking his way into a shack, and the one where the scheming daughter-in-law is diving in the castle's pond, virtually no suspense or tension ever really gets going in the flick. To some extent, the bad soundtrack music can be blamed for that, as it is overly loud and dramatic at all wrong times, distracting more than adding to the film. However, the fault lies mostly with the fact that there simply is nothing scary about the scenes.

"Dementia 13" is worth watching if you're out of other things and interested in seeing the building blocks that led to the slasher flicks of the 1980s, or if you're a huge Francis Ford Coppola fan. This was his directorial and scripting debut, and it was before he became so huge a sensation that only three names could properly describe him!

Another cancer cure worse than the disease....

Atom Age Vampire (1960) 

Starring: Alberto Lupo and Susan Loret 

Director: Anton Giulio Majano 

Rating: Three of Ten Stars 

 Professor Levin (Lupo) has developes a cure for cancer that also regenerates cells to remove scar tissue. Unfortunately, the effect is short-term, and he has not yet found a way to quickly make more of his wonder drug. So, in order to keep a one-time horribly disfigured ex-dancer (Loret) whom he helped from reverting to her former state, he drinks another of his inventions and turns into a hideous, super-strong killer and runs around ripping glands out of young women and implanting them in the stripper as a stop-gap measure.

 

I'm not sure where the vampires enter into "Atom Age Vampire" as this weak Italian mad scientist movie is more of a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" tale... just it's Dr. Hyde and Mr. Hyde, as Levin is a pretty repulsive character even before he starts downing the Mad Science Potion. 

 This movie is a nice addition to a Bad Movie Night line-up, but otherwise isn't really worth your time.

 

'The Vampire Bat' is early horror film that still entertains

The Vampire Bat (aka "Forced to Sin" and "The Blood Sucker") (1933)
Starring: Melvyn Douglas, Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Dwight Frye and Maude Eburne
Director: Frank Strayer
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

As a series of vampire-murders plunge a German village into superstitious hysteria, only Karl Brettschneider (Douglas), the local police inspector, refuses to believe in the undead. However, when one of the murders take place in a house where he is visiting with his girlfriend Ruth (Wray) and her boss Dr. Niemann (Atwill), even Karl starts to believe in vampires. But what is Niemann hiding behnd that locked door from his study... and how did Ruth come into possession of a cruxifix that belonged to one of the victims?



"The Vampire Bat" is part mystery film and part horror movie. It features a fairly simple script that is elevated by an excellent cast who all give fine performances--even the bit players put on great shows. Douglas and Wray are particularly good in the film, and they have an on-screen chemistry that makes the romance between their characters seem real. (In fact, the garden scene feels like one of the most realistic romantic exchanges of any film I've seen from this period.)

This is another minor classic from the formative years of the horror genre. It's no "White Zombie" or "Frankenstein", but it's a decent movie and it's made all the more interesting because the filmmakers didn't necessarily try to adhere to genre conventions because they didn't exist yet. I might have given this film a Seven rating if not for the underwhelming appearance of Ruth and Niemann's labs--the film's small budget shows more on that set than anywhere else in the picture--and for a structural issue with the story that ends up weakening the film's Big Reveal vis-a-vis the vampire murders.

'The Wasp Woman' won't give you a buzz

The Wasp Woman (1960)
Starring: Susan Cabot, Michael Mark, Anthony Eisley, Barboura Morris, and William Roewick
Director: Roger Corman
Rating: Four of Five Stars

Cosmetics industry queen and aging "glamor girl" Janice Starlin (Cabot) undergoes an experimental treatment developed from the jelly of queen wasps. She regains her youth, but transforms into a marauding, flesh-eating wasp woman when the sun goes down.


"The Wasp Woman" is a film that the word 'tedious" was invented to describe. There isn't a scene or a shot that drags on, and, although the pace is picked up in the film's final 15-20 minutes, getting there is an experience almost as boring as watching wasps build a nest.

The film does features decent acting and a few genuinely scary moments (such as the transformation scene that leads into the climax), but its first and second acts are in so desperate need of trimming that this movie can't be considered worth your time.

(Trivia: Susan Cabot retired from acting after making this film and became the mistress of the King of Jordan. He dumped her when he discovered she was Jewish. She was later beaten to death by her midget son. Yes... truth can be stranger than fiction.)

Picture Perfect Wednesday: It's funny because it's true.

A cop gone bad is 'The Man Who Cheated Himself'

The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
Starring: Lee J. Cobb, John Dall and Jane Wyatt
Director: Felix E. Feist
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Homicide detective Ed Cullen (Cobb) puts his skills to use to cover for a killer when his married girlfriend, Lois (Wyatt), guns down her husband. But will he be able to keep the deceit hdden from his new partner, a bright rookie detective who also happens to be his brother (Dall)?


"The Man Who Cheated Himself" is a very well-done movie. It's got a nice, dramatic script of the film-noir variety that unfolds in a mostly believable fashion and at a perfect pace; it's got well-crafted dialogue being delivered be competent actors giving believable performances; and it's got a detective who actually works a mystery without the aid of plot-aided leaps of logic. It might be worth an 8-rating if the set-up didn't feel a bit forced.

Perhaps it's misplaced gallantry on the part of Cullen, but given the cirucmstances of the killing he witnesses, the smart (and even the only rational) thing for him to have done was to report the shooting Yes, there would have been scandal, but even as soon as immediately after the shooting, Cullen could provide all the evidence a competent lawyer would need to get Lois off scott-free: The husband was planning to kill her and the shooting was a cross between accidental and self-defense... and Cullen should have been smart enough to let things stand as they truly were.

But, if Cullen didn't try to disconnect Lois from the crime, there wouldn't be a movie (or, at least, there would have been a very different movie). Despite its shaky foundation, "The Man Who Cheated Himself" delivers plenty of entertainment for fans of film-noir and classic crime dramas. (The cat-and-mouse sequence near the Golden Gate Bridge--and the use of San Francisco as a backdrop in general--goes a long way to make up for the main character's odd behavior to get the story going.)

"The Man Who Cheated Himself" is one of a couple dozen classic thrillers and detective films included in the "Dark Crimes Collection," a box of 50 black-and-white movies. It has, sadly, been discontinued by the manufacturer, so if you know someone who's just recently discovered the magic of old films, you might want to give him or her an instant collection of them before it's completely off the market.


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